Free template
LetterCollection letter template
When emails have run their course, a formal letter changes the register. It arrives differently (send it as a PDF attachment, and by post for large balances), it reads differently, and it is written for two audiences at once: the customer, and anyone who later reviews the file, whether that is a collections agency, a small-claims judge, or your own lawyer. So a collection letter recites the history plainly, states the amount precisely, and avoids any heat that would look bad read aloud in six months.
{{business_name}}
[Your address]
[Date]
{{customer_name}}
[Customer's billing address]
Re: Outstanding balance on invoice {{invoice_number}}: {{amount_due}}
Dear {{customer_name}},
Our records show that invoice {{invoice_number}}, issued on [issue date] and due on {{due_date}}, remains unpaid. The outstanding balance is {{amount_due}}, now {{days_overdue}} days past due.
We have contacted you about this balance on the following dates without resolution: [list reminder dates].
Please pay the outstanding balance in full within 14 days of the date of this letter. Payment can be made by [payment methods]. If your records differ from ours, or if you wish to discuss a payment arrangement, contact us at [phone / email] within the same period.
If we do not receive payment or hear from you within 14 days, we intend to pursue the remedies available to us, which may include referring the account to a collections agency and applying late charges as provided in our agreement dated [agreement date].
We would prefer to resolve this directly and consider that outcome available to us both.
Sincerely,
[Name]
[Title], {{business_name}}When to use it
- After the full email sequence has run without payment or a workable reply
- Before referring the account to a collections agency; agencies want to see it
- For balances large enough that a paper trail may matter later
Getting the tone right
- Write for the file, not the feelings; recite dates and amounts, skip adjectives
- Every claim must be checkable: dates you actually sent reminders, terms you actually agreed
- Only name remedies you are prepared to use, on the timeline you state
The merge fields, explained
Placeholders in double braces fill from the invoice when Duebay sends this template; replace them by hand if you are pasting it into your own email client.
- {{customer_name}}
- The billing contact's name
- {{business_name}}
- Your business name (the sender)
- {{invoice_number}}
- The invoice reference
- {{amount_due}}
- Outstanding balance, formatted (e.g. $1,250.00)
- {{due_date}}
- The invoice due date
- {{days_overdue}}
- Whole days past the due date
- {{payment_url}}
- Online payment link, if you have one
- {{portal_url}}
- The customer's statement page
In Duebay the payment line is conditional: it renders only when the invoice has a payment link, so an invoice without one never says "pay online here:" followed by nothing. The copies below have that line included and the conditional markers removed, so they paste straight into an email client.
Adjacent rungs of the ladder
Put this template on autopilot
This is the manual end of a process Duebay automates the start of: sequences send the ladder on schedule, log every send, and stop when the invoice is paid.